If a religious organization believes that a minister or other employee has engaged in inappropriate sexual behavior, what responsibility does it have to notify others? How does child sexual abuse change the rules for normal termination procedure? Those who become victims of that person insist it is the organization’s duty to share that information. Employees who have been terminated for such behavior say sharing such information is a breach of confidence amounting to defamation.

Therapeutic processes and legal processes are different. Certain things are appropriate in the therapeutic process that are not acceptable in a legal process. Absolute factual accuracy is not the primary goal of therapy. In the world of an investigation, with livelihood and organizational survival on the line, impartial factual accuracy is very important.

Why must organizations avoid apologizing? This is a terrific question! I love it because it gets deep into the core question of what law is supposed to do. I believe that a law is one tool to pursue wholeness, completeness, or maturity. This is a philosophy we share, because each of us uses our respective discipline to help clients move in that direction. So—a good legal advisor ...

A woman elder, a church employee, vehemently disagreed with her senior pastor’s position on a particular issue. She insisted on pushing her position until the Session finally fired her. Then she sued the church. But the Court agreed with the church that the government has no business telling the church how to manage its leadership.

Here is the church And here is the steeple. But does it belong To the group or the people?

Church property disputes are painful and usually contentious. Usually, though not always, they begin when a congregation wants to leave the denomination, often over doctrinal fidelity. Because it is a dispute over church property, deep constitutional issues apply that may trump regular property law.

A claim of negligence against a church or ministry can have very serious consequences. There are many possible types of legal claims: torts, breach of contract, employment claims, intellectual property and so forth. Because of the potential high value of the claims, and because it is a common type of lawsuit that can take many forms, this post reviews the tort of negligence resulting in a personal injury, with the church or ministry as a defendant. While individual defendants are usually named, some sort of shared liability with the organization is likely because it has greater financial resources.

A Catholic priest in the Archdiocese of St. Louis, Rev. Jiang, was accused of sexually abusing a child. He denied having done it. The criminal case against Rev. Jiang was voluntarily dismissed by the prosecutor.

Failing in the child protection arena has two possible worst-case outcomes for organizations. You need to get these policies right the first time. Organizations need to work on their child protection policies.

Although it is important that an appellate brief be artfully drafted, victory on appeal may turn more on whether trial counsel had the forethought to ensure that an issue was preserved. This article reviews the general rules regarding preservation and explores the narrow exceptions to that rule that have been recognized by Colorado appellate courts. It then provides some practical suggestions for preparing for appeal during trial and beyond.

This article was originally published in the Pikes Peak Lawyer, October 2015, the official publication of the El Paso County Bar Association. Read More→

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